Maria Hill. Historian.
Photograph. 2001 – taken by NSW Department of Education & Training for Maria's State & National Discovering Democracy Award
Curriculum Vitae
October 2006
Personal Profile
Name: Maria Hill
Address:
37 Derna Crescent,
Allambie Heights,
N.S.W. 2100
Home Telephone/fax: 94020053
Mobile number: 0038 007 560
Email:
Contact Maria Hill
School: Manly Selective Campus
Education
1998 Masters in History
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Conflict and Consensus in Modern Australia Credit
The Problem of Women’s Histoy Distinction
Australia Since 1949 High Distinction
Lawlessness and Settlement High Distinction
Research Paper 1:
“The Emergence of the Palestinians Since 1948”
(20,000 words) High Distinction
Research Paper 2:
“The Power Structure in the Nazi Party”
(20,000 words) High Distinction
1981 Diploma of Education
University of Sydney
1978 Bachelor of Arts (Honours in History)
Historiography IVA High Distinction
Family and Feminism High Distinction
Honours Thesis: ‘Images of the Greek Family in Australia’
66,000 words
The Honours Thesis:
"I was born in Athens, Greece on the 14th January, 1956. At the age of 3, I came to Australia with my parents. My father Theodore (Theothoris) was an industrial chemist. He was born in Pyrgos, a town on the Peleponnese south of Patra and west of Olympia. My mother was a housewife. She had escaped with her family, as a young girl from Smyrna. I was the eldest of 2 children.
While growing up in Australia I felt a great sense of confusion about who I was and where I belonged. In retrospect I realized, but not at the time, that this confusion was caused by mainstream Australian culture which ignored the existence of migrants.
While purporting to welcome migrants into the wider Australian community, the Australian Government gave contradictory messages, on the one hand wanting migrants to become part of Australian society while at the same time rejecting them for not being Anglo- Celtic and Protestants. This dichotomy created the confusion I felt about my identity.
To find answers to my problem I decided that as part of my Honors degree in History I would focus on understanding how Greek families in Australia who arrived before the Second World War adapted and changed as a result of migrating to Australia and where their children and grandchildren fitted into this huge continent.
Questions such as "Did they remain in ethnic ghettoes or were they socially mobile?" were explored.
In the final analysis I discerned the formation by the third generation, of a distinct and unique identity:
"The Greek-Australian identity" vibrant, alive and just as valid and important as the Anglo- Celtic Australian identity for the development of a distinctly Australian NATIONAL identity.
"A Landmark Thesis of 66,000 words I did not find all the answers but I was able to make a significant contribution to research in family studies, oral history and immigration". Written in 1978, when Maria was a tender 22 years old, the thesis was a 'leader' in the field of both oral history and ethnic family studies in Australia. It was written at a time when there was no Institute of Family Studies in Australia and neither was there an Oral History Association in existence. These organizations did not come into being in Australia until many years later. Therefore the oral history methodology used had to be developed primarily by the author. The only user guidelines available for Oral history were from folklorists. Furthermore understanding and documenting family life was in its infancy in Australia. Monographs existed but not many.
"Thanks: I would like to thank my husband Stuart J. Hill who reproduce the photographs for my thesis and drew all the maps. I would also like to thank my brother Nectarios Costadopoulos, Phillip Kazanis, Magdalene Fong and Devi Nyar for the many hundreds of hours that they put into preparing my thesis for publication on the World Wide Web, as part of their Master course in Information Systems, Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney".
http://www.cybernaut.com.au/greeksinoz//frmset5.htm
Publications
Educational Resources:
Federation: Inclusion and Exclusion, state-wide Educational resource kit commissioned by NSW Centenary of Federation, produced by the NSW Department of Education and Training 2000.
Maria Hill & Ian J. Bickerton, Contested Spaces: the Historiography of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, McGraw-Hill, North Ryde, 2003.
Papers
The Emergence of the Palestinians Since 1948 Part I: The Palestinians Before the Creation of Israel, Journal of Arabic Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 4, No.2, 1998.pp.113-41
The Emergence of the Palestinians Since 1948 Part I: The Palestinians Before the Creation of Israel, Teaching History, Volume 33, No.2, pp.19-33.
The Emergence of the Palestinians Since 1948 Part 2: The Palestinians After the Creation of Israel, Journal of Arabic Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1999, pp. 45-59.
Electronic Publishing
Honours Thesis: Greeks in Australia: “Images of the Greek Family in Australia”
http://earth.macarthur.uws.edu.au/greeksinoz/
Winner: ‘Best Electronic Publishing Award’ (1997) from School of Journalism, University of Technology, Sydney.
Grant Applications:
May 1999 applied for and was awarded a grant from the ‘Commonwealth Discovering Democracy school based initiatives,’ to write a program for the state on civics and citizenship.
June 1999 wrote and submitted a joint grant application with the School of History, University of New South Wales, for funding to develop, an ‘On-Line Civics Education Centre,’ for the professional development of rural and remote teachers.
Special Awards:
National Winner, Secondary Teacher Category, Discovering Democracy Achievement Awards, Canberra, 20th June 2001.
State Winner, Secondary Teacher Category, Discovering Democracy Achievement Awards, Sydney, 27th June 2001.
2001 awarded an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship from UNSW to complete PhD in History.
2001 awarded a full-time Study Leave Scholarship by the NSW Department of Education and Training to write a PhD thesis.
2003 awarded a competitive Army History Grant to undertake overseas research for the PhD study.
Awarded Centenary Medal by the Commonwealth government for the writing of kit Federation: Inclusion-Exclusion.
Employment
Currently
Completing a PhD in History and teaching part-time at Manly Selective Campus Northern Beaches Secondary College.
The Ph.D
"My PhD thesis, due for submission end of January 2007 is entitled:
The Australians in Greece and Crete: a study of an intimate wartime relationship.
It examines 'relationships in war' and their significance. It also provide a Greek perspective on the events in terms of providing an understanding of why the Greeks acting as they did during the war. It is an attempt to write the Greeks back into the history of these campaigns.
Furthermore, it explores the reasons why the Australian relationship with the Greeks was so successful- what was it about the Aussies that appealed to the Greeks and visa versa?
In conclusion it emphasizes the importance of knowing one's ally as well as one's enemy for the success of a campaign. The thesis is original in that no one has critically examined the Greek-Australian war-time relationship before, even though politicians continually refer to the close bond that was forged by the war between Australia and Greece".
2000-2001 Head Teacher History (relieving)
North Sydney Boys High School
1999-2000
Project Officer: Federation
Department of Education and Training Curriculum Support Directorate
1995-1999 History Teacher
North Sydney Boys High School
1988-1995 Casual Teacher
Tenterfield High
(on Maternity Leave)
1987 Tutor
Multicultural Societies
World Inequality
Australian Society
School of General Studies
University of New South Wales
1987 Teacher
Modern History
Randwick Tafe College
1984-1986 History Teacher
Bass High School
1982-1983 History/English Teacher
Marist Brothers Kogarah
1981-1982 History/English Teacher
John Therry High School
Professional Activity
Papers presented
“Greece – the forgotten campaign: researching the experiences of Australian soldiers using archival sources,” History Teachers Association of N.S.W. State Conference, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 20th May 2006.
“The Second Gallipoli – the Battle for Greece and Crete: diversion or disaster?” History Teachers’ Association of Australia (HTAA) National Conference, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, 1st October 2002.
“Federation: Inclusion-Exclusion,” History Teachers’ Association of Australia (HTAA) National Conference, Australian National University, 2-5th October 2001.
“The Palestinians 1948 to 1967: the Historiography of the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” Modern History Seminars, The Institute of Engineers Auditorium, Milsons Point, 10th September 2001.
“The Emergence of the Palestinians: from Terrorism to Diplomacy,” at Macquarie University Modern History Teachers’ Conference, 12th May 2001.
“In Defence of Historical Simulations: the Federation kit: Inclusion and Exclusion – a study in rigor,” Australian Historical Association Conference, Adelaide University, July 2000.
Joint presentation with Film Australia, on Federation, the 3 part television series, History Teachers’ Association of Australia (HTAA) National Conference, University of Western Australia, Perth, 29th September to 1st October 1999.
“Federation Kit,” History Teachers’ Association of Australia (HTAA) National Conference, University of Western Australia, Perth, 29th September to 1st October 1999.
“Federation is Fun,” History Teachers’ Association of NSW Professional Development Day, Joint Teachers Council, Sydney, 22nd May 1999.
“The University and the School: a successful partnership,” History staff Seminars, University of New South Wales, April 1999.
“Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” History Teachers’ Association of NSW Annual Conference, University of Sydney, 4th & 5th December 1998.
“The Emergence of the Palestinians,” 17th Annual Conference of the Australasian Middle East Studies Association (AMESA), at the Australian National University, September 1998.
Other professional involvement
1980. Interview with Sir Nicholas Laurantus of Lourantos Retirement Village at Lakemba for a pilot series called "Australia- Australia" to be produced by SBS.
Sir Nicholas Laurantus. Eminent Kytherian. Eminent Australian
Co-Convener and Co-chair of two day International Symposium on German and Extension history: “The Great Debate about History” for Teacher and Students, Clancy Auditorium, UNSW, 25th -26th July 2002.
Organiser and convener of NSW History Teachers’ Association’s Modern History Professional Development Day, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, 31st March 2002.
Judge and chairperson of Children’s history section of the Premier’s History Awards, 2001.
Organiser and convener of NSW History Teachers’ Association’s Modern History Professional Development Day, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, 31st March 2001.
Co-organiser and Co-chair of the International Symposium for Teachers and Students on ‘Weimar and Nazi Germany’ at the University of New South Wales, 16th July, 1999
Content expert on migration in the television documentary “Island of Dreams” that examined the impact of migrants and aboriginal people in the development of a new Australian identity, produced by John Pilger in 1981.
Areas of Research Interest
Virtual Histories: History and Technology
Civics and Citizenship studies
Australian History- including Greek migration and history
Arab-Israeli Conflict and Nazi Germany
Gifted and Talented Education & innovative pedagogies.
Involvement in Professional Historical Bodies
Executive member History Teachers Association of N.S.W. 1996-2004
Board member History Council of N.S.W. 2001-2002
Member History Teachers Association of N.S.W. 2006
